“You are not alone.” Over the years I have received and given so much advice about how to build and run a company. Things about hiring, fundraising, leading, and growing. But of all the advice those four words always rang as the most important.

For most of my life, I would sit down in front of a white screen with a blinking cursor and just start writing. The words would flow and in the back of my brain, a small, but persistent, voice would cheer me on.

Recently, there has been a lot of discussion around what types of company is venture capital helpful.

Everyone I know has some activity that when everything else is lost, they can find solace within. That when the world is burning around them, they can find respite within that activity and say, “I am fine.”

When people ask me what's special about Silicon Valley, I answer: “success begets success, and entrepreneurship perpetuates entrepreneurs.”

As you can see from the screenshot, this post is from a little while ago. I am updating it because things haven’t gotten better and in many ways, Dark UX has gotten worse. As product people, we can do better.

An on-going series taking a look at the Amazon Leadership Principles from a startup point of view.

Back in September, I wrote a post titled, Want to Start a Company? Work at a Big One First with the intent of exploring the Amazon Leadership Principles from a startup’s perspective.